E-Motor Production: PEM Highlights the Market's Challenges and Opportunities
The chair "Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components" (PEM) of RWTH Aachen University has compiled key findings from research and practice on electric motor production in a current guide. On almost 40 pages, the publication analyzes the entire value chain in the area of tension between demand-driven market pull and the technology push that is independent of it, through which fundamental and promising, but in view of their success and value creation, sometimes risky innovations can arise. "Electric motor manufacturing brings with it challenges in organization, product technology, and production engineering," says PEM chief engineer Benjamin Dorn. "At the same time, digitization and circular economy open up great potential."
According to the authors, quality can be increased and costs can be reduced not only in the product itself, but also in the production of the electric motor. In addition, the increasingly numerous variants of electric motors are being intensively researched in order to increase their performance and efficiency. While the automotive industry is undergoing what is probably the most significant transformation process of recent decades, affecting car manufacturers, suppliers, and equipment manufacturers in equal measure, the heart of the matter from a technology and value creation perspective lies in the electric powertrain.
Many cause-and-effect relationships are still unknown
"The players in the value chain operate in a closely linked production network with strong mutual influence," says Dorn. "However, many interdependencies in electric motor production are not yet sufficiently known, so that a great deal of strategic uncertainty determines the picture of the industry." For this reason, the RWTH publication focuses on the position in which the individual players in the market find themselves, the resulting opportunities and risks for them, and how companies are currently trying to navigate the still young electric mobility market.
The value chain between market pull and technology push
Against this backdrop, the PEM team of authors considers the scope of comparatively small, sequential innovations in electric motor production, the importance of interdependencies between materials and processes, and the opportunities presented by digitization in production and sustainability efforts in the sense of a future circular economy. The publication "Electric Motor Production: The Value Chain in the Field of Tension Between Market Pull and Technology Push" is available in German for free download here.
Further publications on the topics of batteries, fuel cells, and electric motors can be found in the electric mobility guides section.